The 2026 true-crime documentary series on Paramount+, Handsome Devil: Charming Killer, presents the horrific tale of Wade Wilson, a Florida man who had brutally killed two women back in October of 2019. Along with going into the details of his crimes and trying to pinpoint the exact reasons behind his actions, the series also focuses on the kind of attention the killer got while in prison, with him even being called the ‘Deadpool Killer.’ Overall, Handsome Devil: Charming Killer is adequate in its presentation, although it sometimes gets overly dramatic, which hampers the realistic touch that is otherwise maintained.
Who is Wade Wilson?
Wade Steven Wilson was born as Anthony Testasecca in May of 1994 to teenage parents, and his father, Steven Testasecca, admits in the documentary that he and his girlfriend definitely did not have any plans of starting a family at the time. Steven was merely 14 or 15 years old when his girlfriend became pregnant with his child, and they possibly went ahead with the birth only because they did not know what else to do or did not have the money to get an abortion. Soon afterwards, Steven got arrested for some crime and was sentenced to 6 months in juvenile prison, during which time his girlfriend decided to put their baby up for adoption. Thus, Anthony Testasecca found a new home in Tallahassee, Florida, with Steve and Candace Wilson. The Wilsons were absolutely in love with the baby boy because of his cuteness, and Candace lovingly named him Wade.
In his youth, Wade was initially a very normal boy, doing well in school and having a lot of friends. He specifically had a commendable habit of always standing up for his friends and making a clear distinction between right and wrong. Candace recalls that he did not have any trouble in junior school, but things took a different turn very quickly around his 16th birthday. As Wade turned 16, Candace revealed to him how he was adopted and also gave him permission to write letters to his biological mother so that he could reconnect with his biological family and make them a part of his life. Although her intention behind doing so had been very good, the revelation was not taken well by Wade. The teenager, who was also experiencing the effects of puberty, like extreme anger, was disappointed at how his biological parents had abandoned him and given him up for adoption.
This was when Wade’s troubles with the law first began, and it did not take long for him to become a regular offender with a growing notoriety. He was involved in numerous criminal acts like robbery, assault, and burglary as a teenager and was first sent to prison in 2013 for burglary and grand theft. In 2015 a woman brought charges of battery, kidnapping, and rape against him, but Wade managed to wriggle free as he was acquitted. In 2017, he got involved in a weapons-related crime and was given a prison sentence once again. He had also made a girlfriend at college by this time, and seemingly got violent with her a few times, but there was nothing too serious about these incidents. Eventually, Wade got into a relationship with a woman named Mila Martinez, who appears throughout the docuseries to tell her side of the story.
Mila admits to having been attracted to the numerous tattoos on Wade’s body and, despite knowing about his criminal past, got together with him because she liked his ‘bad boy’ nature. Mila genuinely believed that she could turn him away from crime and drugs and make him a good man while also enjoying his fun-loving and slightly reckless attitude towards life. But just 6 months into their relationship, she started to understand how things were just not in her control, with Wade assaulting her a number of times. Mila filed official complaints against these incidents of assault as well, but she kept forgiving her boyfriend each time and getting back together with him. As the law got involved and Wade was arrested based on her complaint, Mila decided to drop the charges, because she did not want to go through the hassle of attending court trials and also clearly felt that her boyfriend had learned his lesson. Therefore, he was released from jail and let free in society, all because Mila did not feel like seeking justice for herself. Unfortunately, this is a decision that she regrets throughout the series and even to this day in real life.
What exactly happened on 7th October, 2019?
The basis of Handsome Devil: Charming Killer are the extremely violent events from 7th October, 2019, when Wade Wilson destroyed the lives of numerous people in a matter of a few hours. On the night of the 6th, Wade and Mila went to the Buddha LIVE bar in Fort Myers, like they often did, where Mila ran into an old friend of hers. Although Wade wanted her to do drugs with him, as he had seemingly bought a fresh batch from someone at the bar, Mila refused to do any drugs that night, which left her boyfriend upset. Wade left the bar in Mila’s car without asking or informing her, and totally upset and done with the relationship, she did not bother to pursue him that night, intending to take her car back the next morning.
But in the early hours of 7th October, Wade returned to Buddha LIVE, where he met and befriended two women named Stephanie Sailors and Kristine Melton. Stephanie recalls how it was she who introduced Kristine to Wade, after he had walked up to her and inquired about her friend, whom he found attractive. The three spent a few hours at the bar together before going to the house of a friend of the women, where they spent some more time. Eventually, the three went to Kristine’s house in Cape Coral, and Stephanie then left the place early in the morning. Kristine and Wade, who had both expressed interest in each other, stayed back and made love before the woman fell asleep in what she believed were the safe confines of her bedroom. Stephanie claims that neither she nor Kristine had sensed anything off about Wade that night, and so there was no reason for them to not trust him.
However, this turned out to be a fatal mistake for Kristine Melton, as Wade Wilson simply saw her sleeping peacefully and decided to try something that he had been thinking about for quite some time. Wade strangled Kristine to death and immediately thought of how to get rid of her body. He wrapped the body in bedsheets and clothes and tried dragging it into his car, but could not do so and left it inside Kristine’s house and fled the scene in the dead woman’s car. Seemingly panicking after what he had just done, Wade then called up Mila, asking her to forgive him, like he had made a habit of doing by now, and asked to meet her. As she told him to come see her at the spa that she owned and ran, Wade showed up at the business and tried to forcefully shove her into his car. When Mila started to fight back, he assaulted her and made efforts to kidnap her. It was only because of the help from the neighboring businesses that Mila survived the ordeal and could call the police while Wade drove away.
Frustrated and scared by his situation, and also driven by the belief that his life was already over and therefore nothing mattered anymore, Wade Wilson started driving around looking for one more victim. He spotted a woman named Diane Ruiz in Cape Coral, asked help from her in locating the high school, and lured her into his car in this manner. He then went on to physically and sexually assault her and throw her out of the car in a vacant field in the area. In order to ensure that the woman would not live to reveal what had happened with her, Wade drove his car over her numerous times, shattering many bones in her body and killing her in the process. According to his own admission, all he wanted at the time was to run over Diane’s body enough times to make it look like ‘spaghetti,’ and that is exactly what he ended up doing, his violence knowing no bounds.
How was Wade caught, and what followed afterwards?
When the Fort Myers police first started looking for Wade on the 7th of October, they had no idea about the murders he had committed, and they were only pursuing him for having assaulted his girlfriend. But as Kristine Melton was reported missing, the local authorities reached her house, where she lived alone, and found her dead body. Similarly, Diane Ruiz was also reported missing by her fiancé, and a search for her was initiated, but her body could not yet be found. Meanwhile, the police tried detaining Wade, but he fled the scene, and the authorities did not give chase because they did not have permission to do so. For the next several hours, Wade remained a fugitive until he contacted his biological father, Steven Testasecca, over the phone.
In this call, Wade told his father about what he had done, and according to Steven, the 25-year-old had a sense of pride in his voice, as if narrating the stories of his crimes as great achievements. This made Steven believe that his son had entered a drug-induced spree of violence, which meant that he might continue hurting and killing more women. Thus, he immediately informed the police about the call and also about how Wade had been hiding in a house not far from where he had first run from the police. In the next few minutes, multiple teams of the Fort Myers police reached the house, and Wade surrendered without a fight. The murderer was immediately put behind bars, and an investigation began.
While it was clear to the police that Kristine had been murdered by Wade, and he could be charged with the crime, it was still crucial to get hold of Diane’s body and link it to this case. Therefore, they sought the help of Steven Testasecca once more, as he was brought to the prison to try and convince his son to give up the location of where he had dumped the body of his second victim. Wade did eventually agree to help the police recover the body, but a different team had already found it by this time. A lengthy investigation and then court trial went on for almost the next five years, during which time Wade was held in prison. But he showed no remorse or guilt, and even continued to smuggle in drugs and call up and form relationships with various women from inside prison. He even tried to reconcile with Mila Martinez, but she immediately refused to even stay in touch with the murderer.
Why did Wade Wilson commit the gruesome murders?
One of the most obvious theories, one presented by the defense during the trials as well, behind the reason for Wade’s gruesome crimes is that he has been suffering from multiple serious mental health disorders since his teenage years. According to his adoptive mother, Wade had been diagnosed with mental health conditions around the time he was sixteen or seventeen, with bipolar disorder being the most significant of them all. As multiple doctors had been consulted, Wade had been prescribed medication to keep his disorders in check, but he stopped taking the pills after a few years, which resulted in him living in an unstable state of mind. Added to this was the fact that he was heavily addicted to drugs and had made narcotic intake a part of his daily life. As a result, Wade would apparently turn too violent and dangerous after taking drugs, which ultimately pushed him towards committing the atrocities against the women.
But this theory has some flaws as well, as pointed out by the prosecution during the trial, starting with the crucial fact that absolutely no records of Wade consulting psychiatrists or getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder can be found anywhere. The second question raised by the prosecution was that Wade was not the only young man getting high on drugs on a daily basis in the United States, which suggests that there has always been something inherently evil in him. Although the defense tried to claim that he was an absolutely different man, a kind-hearted and sensitive fellow when not on drugs, there are way too many reports of assault or abuse on his ex-girlfriends to believe such a claim. Mila had told the police how Wade was always quite boastful about his murderous and violent tendencies, and he had even apparently wanted to kill a boyfriend that he had made some time before meeting her.
Based on the information and theories provided in Handsome Devil: Charming Killer, Wade Wilson seems to have been driven by a deep sense of misogyny and a twisted urge to dominate women. Everything about him points to a fragile male ego and an associated belief of being superior to women. He has always been proud of his charismatic looks and personality, which have been the foundation of his confidence, but at instances, this self-confidence needed some external validation through a horrific desire to dominate helpless women. He had no specific reason to kill Kristine Melton, as there was no sexual or monetary angle to the crime. According to his own testimony, Wade would often have an urge to kill, and his cowardly self obviously considered a sleeping woman the best target.
He then killed Diane Ruiz simply because he had liked the experience from a few hours ago, and the frustration of not being able to dominate over Mila had also possibly played a role in making him more violent and desperate. A deep-lying question of self-worth took over at this time, as he possibly already doubted whether his life was worth anything, which must have originated from the absolute shock, anger, and disappointment at having learned that his biological parents had put him up for adoption. His underlying resentment for women ultimately brought all these thoughts and beliefs together, making him casually murder two women in the most brutal manner and then show no remorse over his actions.
What was the reason for his public following?
An unusual and quite perplexing situation developed for the authorities after Wade Wilson’s case was reported by the media, as the murderer quickly garnered a fan following, with supporters even from European countries. It was later evident that most of these fans were women, who had been charmed and manipulated into believing that their beloved Wade was innocent and being framed by the police because of his attractive looks, and obviously because he told so to most of these women, through personal phone calls. These fan groups kept sending him money in prison to spend on buying food and snacks from the canteen, and they even raised 90,000 dollars for him so that he could hire good lawyers to fight for his defense in the trial.
Wade had always been very particular about his looks, and after being imprisoned, he went all in on making himself appear more intimidating by getting tattoos on his face, including Nazi swastikas and other incredibly problematic symbols. He would appear in expensive suits during court sessions, and many swooned over him on social media platforms like TikTok. This was clearly a case of women, and a few men too, feeling attraction towards extreme masochism, with a tinge of savior complex as well, as had been the case with Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and so many other serial killers. Wade started talking to multiple such women, promising to marry them once he was released from prison, and even referred to them as ‘Mrs. Wilson’ during the calls as part of his manipulation strategy. One of these women, Alexis Williams, appears in the docuseries as well, eventually having realized her mistake, and talks about how she had been roped into spending hundreds of dollars on a man in prison.
Where is Wade Wilson now?
During the court trial, the murderer showed absolutely no emotion and simply sat watching the proceedings during every session, almost as if still proud of his actions. At the end of the trial, the jury overwhelmingly ruled in favor of the prosecution, finding Wade guilty of first-degree murder in both cases. The defense tried their best to convince the jury that despite the gruesome nature of his crimes, Wade deserved a life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty, as demanded by the prosecution. However, in the end, the jury once again ruled in favor of the prosecution and sentenced Wade Wilson to the death penalty in both cases. The murderer eventually lost most of his followers after this verdict and is currently just a shadow of his former self, having lost his physique because of drug abuse and excessive sugar consumption. He also seems to be losing his mind, or growing desperate, as he has been claiming that a grand conspiracy is in the works against him and that he is being poisoned through the air vents in prison. In this while, Wade Wilson has also been given further prison sentences for having drugs sneaked into prison for him and for also having tried to escape. Currently, he is on a death row at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida. His defense lawyers have challenged the death penalty sentence, meaning that the case will possibly drag on for a few more years, but there seems to be no chance of escape for the devil incarnate, Wade Wilson.
